My new Skinner organ intonation

[ahlborn]

Good morning,
in these last few weeks I have had some free time, and I have committed myself to creating an organ style like Skinner for my digital organ.
Unfortunately I've never played a real Skinner organ, so I've been referring to Virgil Fox recordings , which I'm very fond of as a child.
In fact, I created this style to play Virgil Fox arrangements.

For now I have loaded only two small tracks, I hope to be able to record other recordings soon.

Stop used:

Arioso, comb.1: Gr. Principal 8, Traverse Flute 8, Erzahler 8, Erzahler celeste 8, tremulant,
Sw. Principal 8, Burdon 8, Viola 8, Salicional 8, Vox Humana 8(very soft), tremulant, Sw. to Gr.
Ped. Open wood 32, Principal 16, burdon 8, Sw. To ped.

Comb.2 + 4 feet in Gr. and Sw., +Subbas 16 ped.

Comb.3 Gr. Traverse flute, Erzahler 8, trem.
Sw. Burdon 8, Viola 8, Vox Humana, trem. Sw.to Gr.


Sheep, Gr. Traverse flute 8, trem
Sw. Burdon 8
Ped. Principal 16

https://soundcloud.com/user4773320/skinner-arioso

https://soundcloud.com/user4773320/sheepnew


I apologize, but I do not have professional recording equipment. I connected the organ headphone output to PC. However the recording has a strong audio compression, the sound seem remoteness.
With the organ amplification, the sound is wonderfully natural.

[cham-ed]

If you want to achieve a true Skinner sound and have MIDI, you might want to consider Hauptwerk. They have some very nice Skinner and Aeolian Skinner organs. The St Mary's Skinner is what I use on my VPO most often. And with a good sound system is quite acceptable. Since my church is blest with a real 1925 3M Skinner I have a good knowledge of what one should sound like in real life.
I will say you have managed to produce a nice sound with what you have.

[michaelhoddy]

This sounds quite nice, but I'm not sure it sounds completely like the Harrison-era Aeolian-Skinners Virgil Fox would have been familiar with. The Harrison Aeolian-Skinner diapasons had a different (less horn-like) tonality and were broader, and there was no pronounced chiff evident in their ensembles.

Not sure if you're limited by the extent of the voicing capabilities of your source instrument, but in any case, it's quite a nice sound regardless! Thank you for sharing.

[Dutchy]

Great sound, ahlborn! Is the 'erzahler' in the stoplist of your Sonus 40? Never seen that name before in any Viscount stoplist....what is the VoiceID of it?

[ahlborn]

Thanks all for your advice.
The Erzahler (and other stops) is not present in database stop list. I have uploaded new voices into my Sonus with a physis editor software, and have voicing the stops for look like Skinner organ.

[rjsilva]

If you’re at all interested, a year or so ago I spent a few days recording the individual stops/notes of the Walker at my church, and if you’d like to hear a specific stop for voicing purposes I’d be happy to share.

[ahlborn]

Good morning.
Hi Rjsilva,
Of course, if you could share these samples, I thank you very much.
The Walker is pipe or digital? What age have?

Thank you very much!

[Dutchy]

Rjsilva, very kind of you. I am interested too. Thanks!

[rjsilva]

The Walker is a digital from a couple years ago. I believe Walker Technical actually owns the Aeolian Skinner name and uses a lot of samples from Aoelian Skinner organs. If you’re not aware of them, their organs are top notch. It’s a 50-something stop 3 manual.

I don’t think I’d share everything because it’s many gigabytes of recordings, but if you have some specific requests I can do that.

[ahlborn]

Thank you.
Yes, I know Walker, but I do not think his instruments are here in Europe. I have always felt a magnificent reputation for them.

If it is possible, I would be interested to know the Principal 8 '(or Diapason), Erzahler 8, and Viola's stops.
I would be interested, if the organ had it, also at Clarinet 8.

Thanks

[rjsilva]

I would be happy to share some recordings of different notes of the Principal 8, Viola 8, and the Clarinet 8. However there is no Erzahler. I’ll post links to the recordings later tomorrow.

Here’s the stop list, just for your reference:

Pedal:
Rohr-schalmei 4
Trumpet 8
Trombone 16
Contra Bombarde 32
Mixture IV
Gedeckt 8
Choral Bass 4
Octave 8
Bourdon 16
Diapason 16
Contra Bourdon 32

Swell:
Clarion 4
Trompette 8
Contre Trompette 16
Vox Humana 8
Oboe 8
Tierce 1 3/5
Plein Jeu III
Octavin 2
Flute Celeste II 8
Nazard 2 2/3
Nachthorn 4 (same as Octavin)
Prestant 4
Rohr Flöte 8
Voix Celeste 8
Salicional 8
Geigen Principal 8
Rohr Bourdon 16

Great:
Trumpet 8
Mixture IV
Super Octave 2
Twelfth 2 2/3
Spitz Flöte 4
Octave 4
Harmonic Flute 8
Principal 8
Bourdon 8
Violone 16

Choir:
Clarinet 8
English Horn 8
Fife 1
Scharff III
French Horn 8
Larigot 1 1/3
Flautino 2
Nazard 2 2/3
Koppel Flöte 4
Principal 4
Viola Celeste 8
Viola 8
Holtz Gedeckt 8

[ahlborn]

Hi,
Ok, I interested in:
Gr. Principal 8

Ch. Clarinet 8, Viola 8, Viola cel.8

Sw.Geigen Principal 8, Salicional 8, Voix Celeste 8.

If is possible, the celeste's stop without unison (Viola and Salicional)

Thanks!

[rjsilva]

I edited the recordings to demo various notes throughout the scale. The celeste stops are not joined to the corresponding string, so each recording is separate. Each note was held approximately for 20 seconds since I intended to make a VPO sample set out of the recordings. The following recordings are otherwise unedited.

Choir Clarinet 8:
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_choir_clarinet_8.mp3

Choir Viola 8:
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_choir_viola_8.mp3

Choir Viola Celeste 8:
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_choi..._celeste_8.mp3

Swell Geigen Principal 8:
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_swel..._principal.mp3

Swell Salicional 8:
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_swell_salicional_8.mp3

Swell Voix Celeste 8 (similar but different tone to Salicional):
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_swel..._celeste_8.mp3

Great Principal 8 (I accidentally set the gain too high and the first note has a touch of distortion):
http://files.rjsilva.com/walker_great_principal_8.mp3

[ahlborn]

Rjsilva, thank you so much for sharing!
I can say that many samples are extraordinarily similar to my organ, especially the clarinet and the violas, both in chiff and timbre.

Which technology does Walker use?
On their site (I suppose is www.walkertechnical.com) they talk about sound sampling, but from the samples I've heard I'm almost certain that they make use of a physical modeling technology, or maybe a combination of both.
Especially in the stationary phase of the sound, the variations show, in some cases a cyclic variation (as in the long loop samples) in some cases a "random" variation of the harmonic spectrum (more similar to the physical modeling), in some cases a combination of them .
Of course, the acoustics in which the sound is recorded tends to amplify these characteristics, so it is not easy to say this with certainty.
However this is very interesting; certainly it is a very high quality sound!

[Admin]

The discussion of Physical Modeling has been split from this thread and now can be found here:
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